Five social-friendly apps in the AppExchange

If you need any more evidence of the rise of the social-powered business, you can plot it just by looking at the changing mix of applications in the Salesforce AppExchange.

Today, there are lots of apps in the AppExchange that will social-power your Sales Cloud or help your people seize the many opportunities presented by social media.

One of the cool things about AppExchange is that it harnesses innovation from hundreds of independent software providers to make the working lives of Salesforce users more productive and effective.

As social media works its way into virtually every department in every business, you can see this innovation in the kinds of apps that pop up in the AppExchange – some of them free.

Let’s take a quick look at five of the social apps available in the AppExchange today (including a few of our own). It’s just a small sample but should give you a good idea of the kinds of things businesses like yours are doing with social right now:

1. Socially intelligent sales with InsideView

Successful selling has always been about talking to the right people at the right time. But, of course, this is easier said than done. – after all, over 90% of executives never take a meeting from a cold call or email.

To get through, you need insights into when a prospect is most likely to buy. InsideView uses Smart Agents to monitor over 25,000 sources of information looking for trigger events such as leadership changes, new products, acquisitions etc. It allows you to track key people with social profiling. And it lets you bring a wide range of social information together to help you maximise your sales potential. Learn more about InsideView

2. Get Satisfaction for Salesforce

A lot of customer support solutions are still ignoring customer interactions in social channels. That’s not good. Get Satisfaction for Salesforce helps you engage with customers on Facebook, Twitter and your website.

It’s all integrated into your Salesforce CRM so the customer profiles in your system of record now have social visibility. Creating tickets, setting up custom workflows and monitoring social interactions is easy – because you’re working the way you’ve always worked. The bottom line: you’re more responsive and your support costs come down. Learn more about Get Satisfaction for Salesforce

3. Get the direct line to LinkedIn

As Anna Bratton’s recent ‘action plan’ shows, LinkedIn has become an essential tool for salespeople the world over. It’s the go-to site for researching prospects, making valuable contacts and developing relationships.

LinkedIn for Salesforce is an ideal way to bring two critical tools together. If you’ve got an annual LinkedIn subscription, you can now see LinkedIn profiles alongside your own prospecting information within Salesforce.com. You can learn more about your prospects and contact them directly (even people outside your network). And you can receive alerts to let you know when a prospect’s details change. Learn more about LinkedIn for Salesforce

4. Get more value from Twitter and Facebook

Both Twitter and Facebook have become key channels for engaging with customers and prospects. Both have huge, active communities where people discuss products, ask questions and contact suppliers.

Salesforce for Twitter and Facebook allows you to monitor what’s happening on Twitter and Facebook, connect with customers and prospects, and analyse your results without leaving Salesforce.com. It means you can be part of the conversation, answering questions promptly and referring issues to your support teams when you need to. Learn more about Salesforce for Twitter and Facebook

5. Go from Do to done

Today, social doesn’t just mean using social media to reach customers. It’s also about how you work with colleagues to get things done quickly and efficiently. That’s why Chatter is growing so quickly -- and it’s where our cool little mobile app called Do comes in.

Do is a Salesforce company and we’re more than a little proud of it. Essentially, it’s a super-simple social productivity app that allows your people to work more effectively together. It’s a social to-do list that helps your teams collaborate on projects, assign tasks and get things done. Learn more about Do Projects for Salesforce

So that’s it, our round-up of five social-friendly apps that will increase the value of Salesforce and help you harness the power of social media.

Some will help you social-power your CRM. Others will help your people work together. But all five show how a social media mindset is changing the way we all do our jobs.

We hope you’ll give them a try.